Southern Baptist Sissies

By RUTH BROWN

[THREE NIGHTS ONLY] In 2000, Texas-born scribe Del Shores (Sordid Lives) wrote a play about four homosexual boys growing up in a Southern Baptist church and the often tragic results religious bigotry can have for gay kids. It went on to win a GLAAD award and was staged by many local theater companies. In 2012, Shores raised more than $100,000 in a crowdfunding campaign to record a live performance of the play and release it as a film. Now in 2014, that film is hitting screens across the country. This would be a lovely story but for two things: One, theater on film almost invariably sucks, and two, this play isn't really that good to begin with. It has its moments—the boys' stories feel true to life, there’s some nice singing, and of course the story has a Very Important Message. But the cast is inconsistent (ranging from the fantastic Leslie Jordan to William Belli, whom you may remember from season four of RuPaul's Drag Race), the jokes are dated and hammy, the dialogue is overwrought, and it simply goes on way too long. It probably packs more emotional punch in person, but onscreen, it's like a low-budget sitcom. If you really want to see Southern Baptist Sissies, wait until one of Portland's community theaters puts it on—at least then you'll get an intermission.